Post navigation

We’re Getting Chatty with icouldbe.org

It says it right there in our mission: VolunteerMatch strengthens communities by making it easier for good people and good causes to connect. One of the major ways we do this is through our website, where nonprofits can post volunteer needs for free to reach the millions of interested volunteers that browse our site each year.

Join #icbchat

But providing the free recruitment platform – the technology – is only one piece of the VolunteerMatch connection pie. To further help nonprofits connect with volunteers, we run the Learning Center, with a couple dozen or so free online trainings around volunteer engagement.

We also like to support our nonprofits in their own outreach efforts – especially when they are creative and fun. That’s why we’re joining in on icouldbe.org’s first ever Twitter chat on Wednesday evening, August 1. To join, simply follow the Twitter hashtag #icbchat.

An online mentoring organization, icouldbe.org is a VolunteerMatch power user. They’ve decided to launch a Twitter chat in order to engage their community in discussions around online mentoring, and reach potential participants, volunteers and supporters they might not otherwise have the chance to talk to.

They’ve asked us to join the chat and contribute our knowledge about virtual volunteering, since online mentoring certainly falls into this category. There will also be icouldbe.org mentors on the chat talking about their experiences.

The chat itself will be an hour-long discussion on eMentoring and virtual volunteering, including best practices for mentors, the roles of schools and teachers, success stories and more. If you’re interested in eMentoring, virtual volunteering or just want to chat with VolunteerMatch and one of our great organizations, we urge you to join in!

New to Twitter chats? icouldbe.org provided this great explanation of how it will work:

When the time arrives, log on to Twitter or your preferred application and search for the hashtag #icbchat. This will allow you to filter content so that you’re only seeing tweets from our discussion.

TIP: A great way to monitor conversation and participate in a Twitter Chat can be found at http://tweetchat.com/. Nothing to download, just log in to your Twitter account and enter in the hashtag #icbchat. Everything is neatly organized and updates in real-time!

For the next hour, we will tweet a series of questions and conversation starters on the topics of eMentoring, virtual volunteering and education. Each of our questions will begin with “Q1: Sample question.” Our co-hosts will weigh in with their responses, and we’d love to hear from you, too!

If you’d like to respond, answer with “A1: Sample answer.” Or you can just reply to us, or retweet any tweets you think are worth mentioning. It’s totally up to you – but make sure to always include the hashtag #icbchat at the end of every tweet. That way your tweet will be seen by everyone tuning in and participating.

We hope to see you on the #icbchat next week – it’s just one more way we try to help nonprofits connect with the help they need, and we’re happy to be lending our time and expertise. Just call us virtual volunteers.